* Kelis Nilifer *

"Wow, I'm not used to having anyone awake before I am," I commented with a laugh as I walked into the kitchen to find Armin there.

"Neither am I," he smiled and shrugged. "Tea? The water is still pretty hot,"

"Yes, please," I sat next to him.

"After yesterday, are you alright?" Armin asked as he poured tea into a cup.

"I spent the night sulking, but I slept that off. Lots of things can suddenly get a lot better in the morning light," I commented, then blew on my tea. "Were you and Jean able to settle in alright?"

"Yes," he glanced over his shoulder, and, when he resumed speaking, his voice was hushed. "I talked to Levi, I mean Cap- no - Comman- um-" he struggled with the proper way to address the man in question.

"I just call him Levi for simplicity," I interjected.

"But you're sort of different. A lot more familiar with him..." Armin shook his head. "Right, okay then. Well, I spoke with him yesterday. I feel like it went well."

"Good." I said simply, torn between a strong desire to pry and a less powerful but still present desire to (attempt to, at least) start respecting Levi's privacy again. Either way, what Armin said was positive. Levi was, well, on a good day he was difficult to hold a conversation with, so it was nice news to know that they had spoken successfully.

"Morning." The man himself greeted us in a monotone after entering the kitchen silently.

"Oh!" I gasped.

"Heyyyy, hey there," Armin waved at him stiffly. Could he sense that we had just been talking about him? Hopefully not. The glares alone would take our souls and turn us to stone, specifically in that order.

"The fuck is the matter with you two?" He scowled.

"Ahahaha!" I laughed. "Nothing. Nothing. Um," I cleared my throat. "Good morning."

"Armin," Levi addressed him. "Get your fuck buddy up. Time to have that talk,"

"Oh, sure," Armin scampered out. He glanced back at Levi with a horrified expression when the term 'fuck buddies' registered, and then hustled out faster.

"Talk?" I echoed. "Like the birds and the bees?"

"No, dumbass!" Levi plopped down in the chair Armin had been in. "About the rebels. Mikasa in particular,"

"Mikasa?" I echoed.

"Pixis said something about suspecting her," he shrugged.

"..." Mikasa? It couldn't be... But what I meant by that was simply that I didn't want it to be true, right? I couldn't just ignore the possibility outright. This needed honest consideration before judgement. I stared into my tea, thinking. "Loath as I am to admit it, her supposed involvement makes some sense," I said slowly.

"How so?" Levi asked.

"Well," I began as I went about pouring him some tea. "Historia mentioned that she had received some threatening letters that contained personal information about she and Ymir in them. Mikasa would know stuff like that, since she's also known the both of them since her training days," I reasoned.

Levi nodded. "Alright, that makes sense. Agreed."

"Okay..." I peered at him. "You look tired. Did you rest well last night?" I asked, examining the dark furrows under his eyes. Of course, those seemed to be permanent, but there were levels of tiredness deeper than his usual "ugh" mood. He just grunted noncommittally in reply.

"How does it make you feel? Thinking that Mikasa might be involved with a rebel group?"

"Well... It's unfortunate. She's strong. People respect her, so it's not easy to believe if you don't want to or say no to the idea of rebellion outright if you're inclined to be on her side,"

"What I asked was, how do you feel? Just you." He paused. "You were friends, more or less, isn't that right?"

"Oh." I blinked at him, surprised. My feelings, specifically? "Um... Yeah, we were friends, not as close as she was to Eren or Armin, but still. But we lost contact right after Eren was killed,"

Levi flinched in my peripheral vision. I hesitated before resting a hand on his arm. "Sorry."

"... I can't really expect anyone to sugarcoat what I've done," he muttered.

"Still, I don't want to..." I didn't want to be the one to hurt him like that. Couldn't say that aloud, though. It'd be too sappy. Probably give Levi a cavity if I said it... I withdrew my hand.

"Doesn't matter. Keep going with whatever you were saying," We were talking, and he wasn't cussing in every sentence...? I was tempted to try my luck and touch him again, put my hand on his arm or brush his hair out of his eyes…

"It's just..." I fell silent when Armin and Jean joined us.

"What's going on?" Jean asked, stifling a yawn.

"We need to talk about recent rebel threats," Levi explained, sounding bored. "The general consensus is that Mikasa is involved,"

"Yeah," Jean sighed. "Armin mentioned this last night." He frowned. "Do you really think that's possible? I mean, Mikasa and Historia were on the same side throughout the entire battle with the titans,"

"They were on the same side until the moment Historia gave the order to kill Eren," I said quietly. "Knowing how much she cares for him, it's easy to imagine Mikasa wanting revenge on anyone who hurt Eren," I glanced down at my lap and noticed Levi clenching his hands into fists under the table. I know how it hurts, talking about this... Just bear with it.

"It's kind of hard to fault her for an act of rebellion, then," Armin said quietly. "I sympathize. But," his voice got heavier as he spoke, but still certain in what he was saying. "Harming Historia is the wrong thing for anyone to do right now. Any rebels, whoever they may be, must be stopped,"

"It sounds like we've already decided what's what, so what're we going to do about it?" Jean demanded. "We can't just sit here,"

"Historia told me that she would send a messenger to inform me about the bodyguard position, but I'm not really too keen on waiting. I think I should just go on ahead and take the position for myself." I stated. "What about the rest of you?"

"I'm not really inclined for combat, but maybe I can devise a way to root the rebels out..." Armin murmured contemplatively.

"I'm a doer, not a planner, but I can help with whatever you want," Jean offered.

"And I'm with Kelis," Levi said quietly.

"Right," I heaved a sigh. "Why don't we go ahead and talk to Historia now?"

"Let's go," Armin and Jean went towards the exit.

"Kelis," Levi murmured just to me.

"What?"

"Whatever happens with this situation, I know that you'll make the right choice," he said quietly.

"What?" I repeated, surprised now. Why the reassurance?

"I can tell that you're scared," he looked into my eyes.

"Oh. Well... It's just that I'm anxious," I frowned. "I've had a bad feeling,"

Levi squeezed my thigh before standing, saying nothing further on the matter. Why was he acting so different? It made me even more nervous...

"So does anyone know where exactly we can find Historia at this time of day?" I asked once our group was inside the castle. I wasn't even sure that I remembered the way to her office...

"No... Maybe we can ask?" Armin looked around for help.

"Pixis is her assistant now. He would know," I informed them.

"Pixis, eh? That weird old geezer," Jean shook his head.

"All of you shut the fuck up!" Levi suddenly snapped. He narrowed his eyes and stood still, listening.

"That's..." I caught on a few moments later. There were muffled noises in the background, barely audible. "What is that?"

"This way," Levi took off, and we scrambled to follow him.

We found what was presumably the throne room and entered it, barging in to find complete chaos.

"Kelis!" Historia screamed, her back flat against the wall beside her throne as Pixis defended her from a blade-wielding attacker. There were five of them, standing in a ring around the two of them as Pixis brandished a knife of his own. Our group rushed forward. Not counting Historia, it was five against five now.

"Oh, fuck," Levi muttered under his breath before attacking the person closest to him, sweeping his legs out from under him before straddling his chest and starting to beat his face in. Wow. He hadn't lost his touch at all...

I grabbed Pixis' attacker from behind, keeping a tight grip on their hair and smashing their head into the corner of Historia's throne until they weren't even twitching anymore. "Get Historia away from here!" I yelled at Pixis before I was tackled to the ground by another enemy, probably a man from the figure, although all of their faces were covered. I writhed under him, holding onto his wrists so the knife in his hand wouldn't say hello to my flesh. But he was physically stronger than I was, without a doubt. I raised my head and smashed it against his, winding him long enough for me to knock the knife out of his hand, sending it sliding across the floor. I followed up with a jab to the nose that gave me the opportunity to slide backwards out from underneath him.

"Kelis!" Armin called, tossing me the knife I had discarded. Thank goodness... I nodded to him before grabbing my attacker by the hair, tilting his head back and slitting his throat. I dropped the body and took a second to assess, finding that Levi had seemingly beat one man to death and was now lending Jean assistance in doing the same to another. That was four... Where was the last one?

"Armin, look around. One's missing," I told him. I whirled around, checking the corners of the room, trying to see if there was someone trying to conveniently hide behind the tapestries lining the walls. Any movement...

I heard a shriek and turned around, seeing Armin pinned underneath the last man.

"Armin!" Jean leaped up, but I was already sprinting across the room. The man got off of Armin to attack me instead once I was close enough, deeming me the greater threat. With both of us having knives, neither one could get close enough to land a blow. I went for broke and tackled with my shoulder first, driving my knife into the man's stomach in the process but feeling a sudden searing pain in my shoulder before it was over.

"Ke... lis. Why...?" The man gurgled as he died. What? I stared down at the man, uncomprehending.

"Kelis?" Levi approached me. He pointed to the knife in my shoulder.

"Yeah." I nodded, starting to register the pain now that I wasn't in the heat of battle. Levi out one hand on my back to steady me and pulled out the knife with his free hand. I clapped my hands over my mouth and let out a muffled cry, then managed to nod thanks at him. Armin approached and gave me a wrinkled handkerchief to hold to the wound and staunch the bleeding slightly.

"Pixis, go get a doctor," Historia ordered, and the he sprinted out of the room.

I headed over to the person who had said my name on his dying breath, bending down and pulling his face mask down. I let out a strange sound, attracting a glance from the others. "H... He's a Scout," I whispered, wiping blood from my face in horror at the evidence of what I realized I had done. "I killed a Scout,"